On camera
On location
Weekly scene study (often written specifically for actors by Mr.
Gulager)
Film exercises (matching, hitting marks, more)
Final Project –a short film involving all actors in the class. The
New Beverly Cinema has
expressed interest in adding a screening of the class short to their
scheduled program.
Camera: (and editing on final project)
Director/Cinematographer John Gulager (FEAST Trilogy, PROJECT GREENLIGHT)
Sound person, assistant acting coach:
Actress Diane Ayala Goldner
(FEAST Trilogy, THE COLLECTOR, Rob Zombie’s H2, THE SHIELD)
In the mid 1960's after working in live television, guest starring on
such series as ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and while still
in the midst of starring in his first series THE TALL MAN
Clu Gulager began teaching his "Film Acting Workshop". Mr. Gulager had
trained with the highly respected
Mr. Paul Baker and studied in Paris
with Jean-Louis
Barrault (CHILDREN
OF PARADISE), yet found himself unprepared for the
challenges unique to working professionally in front of the camera.
Hitting your marks, finding your light, repeating the same section of
a scene over and over again, eating 10 hot dogs, shooting out of
sequence, a noisy grumbling joking crew, almost no rehearsal, being
miked and magnified by the eye of the camera was all part of a new
language. The "Film Acting Workshop" was started to address these
challenges as well as to share the avarice Mr. Gulager feels for the
art of film making.
Each class begins with a lecture about acting and/or film-making.
Stanislavski, Grand Guignol, the intangible capacity and priority of
the artist to “delight and surprise”...one never knows what acting
subject Mr. Gulager’s contemplations will explore. What is for certain
is that students will be privy to a wealth of experience from Mr.
Gulager’s 50 years as a professional actor, director and teacher.
The main body of the class, scene study, was first developed before
video cameras were readily available. Class members would hover close
while the performers “worked” their scene mimicking the intimacy of
working on a set with crew members hovering around you. Locations were
and still are one of the factors which makes this class such a unique
experience. Every week class meets at a different location, sometimes
the beach, sometimes the downtown train station, a parking garage, a
car (for driving scenes) a home, a restaurant (for eating, matching
scenes).
In the 1970's, with the help of his 19 year old son, John, Mr Gulager
started incorporating the use of video cameras into the class
curriculum. By the 1980's, John's camera and Diane's "boom"
(microphone) became an inseparable part of the class.
In present day the use of a different location every week continues,
but now every scene and film acting exercise is shot and miked. With
the addition of the camera, the intimate proximity of students and
teacher during scene performances has not changed. It is now the
initial teaching platform where Mr. Gulager helps students become
aware of what makes a scene “camera ready”. “Camera ready” scenes
are shot focusing alternately on each actor. After every scene is
filmed, class meets at the studio where scenes are projected to be
viewed and critiqued by Mr. Gulager.
With the new millennium a new agenda will be added to CLU GULAGER’S
FILM ACTING WORKSHOP. Having created several
shorts in the last few
years, some with as little as a one day shooting schedule (including
LIGHT and
UNKNOWN PLEASURES
by John and Diane), the Gulagers have decided to include a finished short film into each 8
week class session. Students will participate as actors in the short,
written and directed by Mr. Gulager with camera and editing by John
Gulager. And as a special treat the New Beverly Cinema has expressed
interest in screening the class short as part of their scheduled
program.
PSYCHOTRONIC
Magazine article about Clu Gulager
RYAN
MCGINLEY's "MY TOP 10 ART FILMS" picked Clu's A DAY WITH THE BOYS
(1968) for VICE magazine.